1970 Land Rover Series 3 A review from Costa Rica

One of the rear half-shafts broke about a month after purchase. However checking on Wikipedia, it states "Rover designed the shafts to have a weak point, so if the transmission was over-stressed, the easily-replaced half-shafts would break instead of a differential unit or the main gearbox." I suppose this was better than the diff blowing, but was rather inconvenient. I had to put it into 4x4 to limp home on the front drive.

The gear shifter snapped while shifting from 1st to 2nd as well. That was somewhat unexpected, but I suppose the metal fatigue from 36 years of use finally got to it.

Shakes and rattles come and go. Some days it's noise free, others the doors shake and rattle.

The axle and shifter were cheap to fix. Axle about $150 USD and a used shifter installed about $50 USD; mind you I'm in Costa Rica where parts are cheap.

The rattles can be taken care of, I just need to take it to a body shop or as a friend put it, seek each one out on a Sunday for something to do and fix it yourself.

I love the spartan interior, and it rides like a tank.

This car I bought off a guy who spent quite a few dollars dressing it up like a Defender; it confuses a few people, but everyone loves it.